C.1 UCUM syntax reference
| Type | Language / syntactical evaluation of unit expressions |
| Coverage | Unlimited / is able to express any imaginable unit of measure |
| Hosted by | Regenstrief Institute |
| Homepage | https://ucum.org |
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UCUM (Unified Code for Units of Measure) can represent any unit used in science, engineering a business for electronic communication. It provides a single coding system for units that is complete, free of all ambiguities, and that assigns to each defined unit a concise semantics.
UCUM makes use of atomic expressions representing well known base units and a syntax used to combine these atoms to more complex units if needed.
The SI/ISQ as well as other unit systems system allows an unlimited number of possible unit expressions for a single unit. UCUM is able to clearly identify a unit no matter what unit expression is used for it.
UCUM is a recognized standard in a wide field of applications and is recommended or incorporated by other standards for example the medical field (HL7, DICOM, ISO 11240), or geosciences (WMS, GML)
UCUM defines
atomic symbols for the 7 base units of the SI / ISQ System
symbols for prefixes used with atomic units
a large list of symbols used for named, atomic, non-SI units
a syntax description defining the rules used to combine the defined atomic symbols to express complex units